As you may already know, I am planning on running for a seat in Kentucky's State Senate in 2008.

Kentucky has 38 state senators who represent different areas of the state at the capitol in Frankfort. My district includes Germantown, Old Louisville, the U of L and Churchill Downs areas, Smoketown, Shelby Park, Buechel, the airport, and the Original Highlands.

You may recall that I ran for mayor of Louisville in 1998. The senate district I'm running in this time is a lot smaller than the entire city, so I feel getting elected is more realistically achievable. Most of the people who voted for me in 1998 and most of the people who may already know who I am live in this district. Back then, while only raising and spending $1000, I came in third of four candidates. I think of that experience as one of getting my feet wet, and this time, ten years later, I plan to come in first.

The reason I am doing this is simple. There are many basic things in Kentucky, and in most of America, that the majority of people have wanted to change since I was a kid. Yet none of these things have ever changed. In many cases, the situations people live in have gotten worse and, in Kentucky, the programs and the pieces of legislation that most people want have never even been introduced.

The issues are basic things that involve how we as people treat each other and the degree of seriousness with which our leaders hold their charge. Some are popular issues like health care and education, while others are less exciting, nuts-and-bolts issues about the mechanics of how our government and elections work - or don't work - when big money and corporate influences interfere.

Our legislature, rather than addressing the concerns that poll after poll have shown citizens want to have resolved, wastes its time with frivolous bills and non-binding resolutions such as honoring citizens on their birthdays and declaring official recognition for everything from basketball teams to particular types of music. Just last week, they approved taking money out of the fund that is supposed to expand services in coal mining communities and combining it with hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that we paid into the system, in order to hand it over to the world's largest coal company (a company that posted record profits last year). Is that why we pay taxes?

All of this is a waste of our resources while there are people in Kentucky who are homeless, hungry, uninsured, underpaid, under-educated, overworked, struggling to pay the bills, disappointed in the results they see from their efforts, or disappointed in their government. Chances are, everybody who reads this falls into at least one of those categories.

This election is at the same time as the presidential election, so we're still about 14 months out. You'll see a lot of posts from me in that time asking for your help in spreading the word.

I can't officially announce my candidacy - nor will I know if anyone else is running - until January, but I have a website in place now at www.BallotRevolution.org. You can get more info there, vote in a poll, send me your thoughts, register for updates, volunteer, get some stickers and buttons, and make a contribution.

I feel it is my obligation to do this because I am one of the few people I know who has the passion for it and stomach for it. In that respect, I think you are a lucky person to know someone like me who gives a shit enough to do something about it. I mean, we could all just as easily continue to complain that no one is standing up for anything, but the truth is that we have the ability to stand up and we are wasting everyone's time here if we don't.

I would appreciate anything you can do to help, such as reposting my bulletins, distributing information, putting a sticker on your car or a sign in your yard, and telling your friends and neighbors that you know a guy who is running for state senate who you know will make a stink about how the Kentuckians who mine our coal, teach our children, harvest our food, and protect our streets don't get nearly the support they need, and the resources Kentucky has are squandered for the benefit of a few. Even if you don't live in my district, the exposure and word-of-mouth are essential.

This is about what we as Kentuckians want and deserve; to know that our taxes and our efforts are being used for the greater good of Kentucky; for Kentucky to be an innovator in the way it takes care of its own people; for us to feel like paying taxes is the least we can do for what we get in return.

Thanks,
Scott Ritcher

 www.BallotRevolution.org.